City Leaders Hold Their Ground on ICE Policies

Austin found itself in a familiar position last week as both Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened the city over its latest progressive policy decision. The threats followed the Austin Police Department’s March decision to change its general orders to ban officers from arresting people on noncriminal arrest warrants issued by ICE, rather than actual judges as required by law. The new rules also direct officers to get a supervisor’s approval before detaining individuals for ICE. 

Abbott sent a letter to city leaders on April 16 threatening to yank $2.5 million in state grants if APD doesn’t rescind the changes. Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he is investigating whether the new orders conflict with Senate Bill 4, the state law requiring cities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.  

City leaders dismissed the threats. Mayor Pro Tem Chito Vela and Council Member Mike Siegel, both attorneys, defended APD’s new policy and predicted it will survive legal scrutiny. Mayor Kirk Watson issued a statement noting that Abbott is proposing to cancel a grant that would help survivors of sexual assault and provide services for police officers who experience trauma on the job. The city will continue to support both groups, the mayor said, adding, “We don’t have the time and will not play into this political theater.”

Rather than lay low after the threats, City Council is expected to up the ante on April 23 by ordering City Manager T.C. Broadnax to organize a working group of city staff and community members to create a “Safe to Call” policy. The policy, laid out in a resolution from Siegel, would seek to ensure that undocumented residents are able to call 911 and ask for assistance without risking arrest on low-level, unrelated warrants.

With support from CMs Chito Vela, Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, and Zo Qadri, the resolution suggests several ways to protect undocumented people who ask for help. One way is for responding officers to forgo warrant checks on victims and witnesses unless there is an “articulable reason [to] check for warrants due to concerns for officer safety or suspicion that the individual committed a crime.” Another is to reduce the number of warrants issued and arrests made for unpaid class C tickets, by changing court forms and notices. The resolution notes that thousands of arrests are made for such tickets each year and that over 60,000 warrants for unpaid class C tickets remain in the Austin Municipal Court and Community Court systems as of March.

Siegel told the Chronicle that he is proud City Council does not pick and choose who it represents, but instead fights for everyone in Austin. “When it comes to community, the distinction between documented and undocumented means little to most of us,” he said. “We see families with children in schools, workers heading to their jobs, neighbors attending church and gathering for weekend celebrations. To our city, undocumented residents are every bit as worthy of protection and representation as anyone else, which is why we are standing up in this moment to defend them.”

The post City Leaders Hold Their Ground on ICE Policies appeared first on The Austin Chronicle.